Serial: The State vs. Adnan Syed

[Dan H.]

So I finally got around to listening to Serial, the now wildly famous podcast by NPR's Sarah Koenig, and I am just blown away by the whole case.

For those of you who aren't familiar, Sarah Koenig(the producer of radio show This American Life) was contact by a friend of Adnan Syed, and man who was convicted of the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee via strangulation. The friend of Adnan begged Sarah to look into the case claiming that Adnan was wrongfully convicted and is innocent. Very quickly Koenig found a lot of bizarre and confusing evidence, an incompetent lawyer, and a lot of unanswered questions, over twelve episodes she is in constant contact with Adnan and his classmates as she investigates the murder and tries to understand what happened.

The entire case hinges on circumstantial evidence(namely the testimony of a mysterious man named Jay, who allegedly helped Adnan bury the body, and phone records that have now been deemed wildly inaccurate), and there is a time frame of about 21 minutes when the murder allegedly took place where it becomes a he said she said shit show over where Adnan was, and an alibi witness that never got to testify.

I'm blown away by how well produced and engaging the story is, the questions Koenig raises, the stones she turns over, the interviews with Adnan and his classmates, and her attempts at re-enacting the infamous 21 minutes is a tense and jaw dropping thrill ride.

Listen to this podcast. You are doing the Lord's work.

"You don't even know me Koenig. I'm going to shoot myself if I hear someone else say 'I don't think you did it because you're a nice guy'. I'd rather someone say you're a jerk or you're selfish or you're a son of a bitch, but I looked at your case and it looks kindof flimsy. Like, for you to say I'm a nice guy, you don't even know me like that."

Theme song mash up with BIG featuring audio samples from the show

http://soundcloud.com/mbugout/serial-theme-notorious-big-remix-by-fafu

Edited August 27, 2015 by Dan H.

[Len Cnut]

Your names Adnan, you ain't gonna fuckin' make it

[Dan H.]

Your names Adnan, you ain't gonna fuckin' make it

He might, he got his appeal re-opened a month or so ago on the grounds that his lawyer was going through a degenerative brain disease that she kept secret during the case.

Edited August 27, 2015 by Dan H.

[Len Cnut]

I can't imagine what it must be like to be an innocent person banged up, I mean you hear about fuckin' Rubin Carter and fuckin' Gerry Conlon doing 15 year bids, it's fuckin' crazy. I don't think I'd fuckin' make it, every second of every fuckin' minute of every hour of every day would remind me of that shit. There was even a guy who was doing a fuckin' bid for Paul Bernardo, ever hear of Paul Bernardo? He was a serial rapist that later graduated to murder with his fuckin' psycho girlfriend Karla Homolka (including raping and killing her own 15 yr old sister, the mad bitch). Anyway, this guy was doing a bid for the serial raping that Bernardo did, like 30 of em back in the day...then they just let him out like 'whoops, sorry, made a mistake, you can be on your fuckin' way now'.

It's one thing if you're a fuckin' wrong un but just your ordinary person, suddenly finding yourself in nick, your fuckin' whole world must come crashing down around you. This is why i can never support the death penalty, i feel like if you support the death penalty then, in some fuckin' IMMENSELY detached way you're some ways responsible for all the innocent people that get sent down the fuckin' gurgler. I get that it's like a bajillion degrees of seperation but it's still too close for my liking.

[Dazey]

Your names Adnan, you ain't gonna fuckin' make it

He might, he got his appeal re-opened a month or so ago on the grounds that his lawyer was going through a degenerative brain disease that she kept secret during the case.

Makes you wonder why they didn't apply the same logic to the Elections in 2000 and 04.

[Ace Nova]

Not sure how a case could be controversial when the key witness helped him burry the body.

[Dan H.]

Not sure how a case could be controversial when the key witness helped him burry the body.

Key witness wasn't friends with Adnan(it really makes no sense that Adnan would turn to this guy for help burying the body), had a weak but acceptable motive to point the finger at him, allegedly received a $3000 reward for a motorcycle he had been wanting to buy, his story never adds up(the time line doesn't match his testimony, and he constantly changes his story), and each time he was interviewed by the police he changed his story and was clearly coached. Well not coached because I don't think the police had an agenda, but they definitely subliminaly baited and pushed him.

At one point Jay is talking about how he drove Adnan back to school after the murder, and the cop says

"Why, did he say he needed an alibi?"

And Jay responds

"Well... *pause* yeah I think he said that he needed to be seen."

That's super flimsy they put the words in his mouth. Plus there's a witness who saw Adnan in the library at the time of the murder. His lawyer never contacted her and never used her as a witness(again she was allegedly suffering from dementia).

This witness refused to testify at the appeal, and her husband violently chased a PI off of their property. When Koenig reached out to her she said that she stands by her original statement of Adnan being in the library and brushed off not going to the appeal as her "not wanting to get involved". Kinda bizarre, possibly flimsy, but admittedly strange.

She will supposedly be testifying on his behalf during his new appeal this year.

The Innocence Project lawyers reviewed Adnan's case as well, and the primary lawyer said "Either Adnan is the most cunning and intelligent sociopath I have ever encountered in my years of work in criminal justice, or he is innocent."

I don't really know what to think. I'm not sure why Adnan would maintain his innocence after 15 years and especially drag Koenig along for her whole production. He had no motive to kill Hae Lee, and the key witness is pathetically weak.

I don't think it's insignificant that he went to trial and appeal maintaining his innocence and has been consistently doing so for 15 years. I don't think a lot of criminals who did the crime would maintain their lie for so long and to such great lengths. It's not an easy process and your life is still ruined whether you're in prison for it or not.

Edited August 27, 2015 by Dan H.